Herb John's Presentation at the OHC hearings Thursday, May 4 Good evening, My name is Herb John. I am an elected representative of two Retirees organizations - C.A.W.Local 200 Retired Ford Workers Chapter Chairperson and Vice Chairperson of the C.A.W. Area Council which includes Retired Workers Chapters in Kent and Essex Counties. I am also an S.O.S. member. I would first like to sincerely thank the Ontario Health Coalition for organizing this province wide campaign. The government needs a clear message about what we expect from our elected representatives and from our health care system. To date the government has not made provisions for direct public input such as this. Providing for input through the filter of administrative groups such as the L.H.I.N.S. is obviously not working. I would like to tell a couple personal stories and then make some comments about our health care system. My mother-in-law was born, lived her life and raised her family on Walpole Island. During her later years she had health issues related to her heart. During her last months she required occasional hospitalization to stabilize these conditions. She was on the second floor of S.D.H. for one of these occasions just prior to the med beds closing. She was dismissed from hospital on Friday July 24th. The Med beds on the second floor were closed on Monday - July 27th. On the 27th she had an appointment with her family doctor in Wallaceburg and he determined very quickly that she required hospitalization and called S.D.H. He was told there were no beds available and we should drive her to Chatham. He told them he was her physician and demanded that she be admitted. He was told that was not possible. He also could not admit her to ONTARIO HEALTH COALITION MARCH 4th 2010 H.JOHN ! Chatham Campus because he did not have hospital privileges there.We were obviously upset by this and explained that we were barely able to get her to Wallaceburg and she was exhausted. Going to Chatham would have required much more energy than she had. He called S.D.H. back and said that she would be arriving there in an ambulance so they would have to admit her. She was admitted and was in the Emergency department until she was transported to Chatham later that day. While she was in Chatham this family doctor who had treated her for over 30 years could not see or treat her because he had no hospital privileges in Chatham. Many of her family and friends could not visit her at all because of transportation issues and certainly not as frequently as when she was in S.D.H. While she was in Chatham we were never able to talk to a doctor about her condition. The communication and amount of information was unbelievably different. She was released from Chatham after about a week and passed away-August 15th. We believe the results could have been much better for her and her family and friends had the med beds remained at S.D.H. Yesterday a member of my family called and said she was upset and did not know what to do. She had 13 lymph nodes removed in January of last year because of a diagnosis of breast cancer. A week later she saw her doctor and was told that there was no cancer in the removed lymph nodes or the removed lump. At that time she believed it was a miracle because all her friends at church were praying for her. A team of doctors reviewed her case at the Windsor Regional Cancer Center and determined that she did not require chemotherapy because there was no cancer. Shortly after her doctor told her the good news she developed lymphedema. It took 6 months to get a physiotherapy started. She certainly did not need this additional challenge in her life. This doctor has been allowed to interpret pathology reports and perform surgical procedures in Windsor, apparently without ONTARIO HEALTH COALITION MARCH 4th 2010 H.JOHN ! scrutiny since August of 2001 when she performed an unnecessary mastectomy which was settled with a lawsuit of $600,000 plus. The hospital is just now beginning an investigation and admitted that there are currently 7 serious cases. Why do these things happen? It may seem obvious that health care professionals need to be the foundation of our health care system but that is not what appears to be. Corporate lobbyists, administrators, accountants, lawyers and politicians all seem to have louder voices than doctors, nurses and other front line health care professionals. Imagine the bookkeeper telling the auto mechanic how to do his job, imagine the janitor telling the bank manager how to do her job. If the government really wants to maintain and improve our health care system they should listen to the people that are on the front line and stop wasting time and money listening to people with private for profit motives."There is compelling evidence that Canadians across all demographics would prefer a public over a for-profit health-care system," Nik Nanos of Nanos Research said of a poll, commissioned by the Canadian Healthcare Coalition.This was the conclusion of the 2009 poll of Canadians where 86.2% supported or strongly supported "public solutions to make our public health care stronger." When we look at expenditures we see that in Ontario the total dollars spent on health care per capita are in the same ball park as the other provinces. However the amount spent on hospitals is the lowest in the country. Where are they spending the money they are saving on hospitals? How much do they spend on 14 L.H.I.N.’s, on numerous consultants and on totally inept endeavors such as E-Health. The focus is in the wrong place. Focus on having the best health care system in the world and listen to front line expertise to address all the issues involved. This is a business model which has proven to be a key to success in many corporations. Thank-You. |